Ezra Jack Keats, and the Snowy Day

I am not going to waste time writing about me. I started this blog for children's books, and that's what I will write about. But it is only fair to tell you why I decided to do this.
As I grew up, books were always my first love. Thankfully I passed my love of books onto my children. When they were growing up, they always loved Friday's best, because Fridays meant new books for everyone. I'd come home with a book for every child and even one or two extra because I couldn't decide which I liked better. We would spend every night reading before bed.
That love of reading seems to be disappearing. Instead of sitting with a book, most children come home from school and hop on the computer, or turn on their video games.
Sadly, there are many people who are proud of being non readers. They tell me that they don't need to read a book to be educated.  Maybe that's true, but there is more to education than knowing facts. There is imagination and imagery. There is learning about places you'll never see, hearing about things you wouldn't have heard of otherwise. It isn't a cliche to say that to open a book is to open a world.
So I hope by telling you about some of the children's books I've enjoyed that I will encourage you to read again. Maybe you won't love it as I do, but you might be surprised.  Pick up a book and see!
Ezra Jack Keats was the son of Polish Jewish immigrants who came to the United States in the early 20th centuary. He was always artistic. His father worried about him making a living as an artist, but his pride in his son was so strong. Keats never realized his father's pride in his art until the day his father died of a heart attack. Keats had to identify the body. Inside his father's wallet Keats found articles about his awards and achievements that Keat's father had kept.
Keats continued his dream of being an artist and eventually got into chidren's illustrating. From there, writing children's books seemed a logical step. 
Because he knew what it was like to face prejudice as a child, Keats wrote and illustrated stories about minority children. Peter, the charactor in The Snowy Day, was the first Africa-American child to be used as a main charactor in a children's book. In 1963 the book won the distinguished Caldecott Awared for it's beautiul illustrations.
 The story itself is about a little boy who goes out in the snow to play. The illustrations look as though they were cut from cloth with a pair scissors. You almost want to reach out nd feel the mother's dress, or touch the wet on Peter's pocket. The story is a simple one, but one which younger children can relate to and understand.  This is an excellent story for children age 2-5.  It is certainly one they can relate to given the amounts of snow we have now. But even in the summer, when it will be hot and humid, A Snowy Day is a book we can all still enjoy.